5280 on the Dream Stream

Had a great day on the Dream Stream with Ben and Eugene (Geno) Ray of 5280 Anglers. Ben's better half had given Ben a guide trip through 5280 for his BDay and we realized a few days later that Geno guides for 5280! We have known Geno for a few years now. Really cool, laid back guy who we've been wanting to fish with ever since we met him. Ben actually did get to fish with him once and that is actually how we met Geno. We did a corporate trip through the Angler's Covey about 3 years ago in Elevemile Canyon and Geno (who guided for The Covey at that time) guided the group that Ben was in. Ben caught the biggest fish I've seen come out of Elevemile Canyon on that trip so I know Ben has been anxious to get back on the water with Geno!

Ben and I hadn't fished the Dream Stream before this trip this fall. We figured we wait to see if the crowds died down any. Plus we knew we'd be fishing with Geno. The bad news was that the crowd was pretty big... The good news is that they didn't stop us from at least having a shot at a huge brown.....

We got a fairly early start and the water that Geno wanted to start us on was wide open. It was a little chilly but when the wind died down it was pleasant. It didn't take us long to get on fish. In fact it didn't take us long at all to get on big fish. VERY big fish. 

Geno had Ben lined up on a really nice bend hole. We had taken a few casts but we couldn't get a great view of the water. The sun had started to come up a bit so Geno decided to hit the far bank to see what he could spot. Didn't take him long to spot a massive male brown holding in about 3 foot of water. It was pretty much directly in front of  Ben but just a little further out from where he had been casting to.

Geno told Ben where to cast and Ben's fly's got bit....... and spit by the big ass brown. I don't think any of us were ready for it it happened so fast. BUT he didn't spook. He went right back to were he was to keep sucking down tasty river morsels. Ben cast again and I was watching his indicator when it paused. I think all I got out was a, "oooo, ooooooooooo", Ben set the hook and Geno announced that the big ass brown was now buttoned up on the end of Ben's line!

I saw a huge swirl with lots of yellow, orange, and red. This thing was huge. Geno put it at 27" conservatively. I got up on the near bank to get a better view and got a great view of the toad as it turned it's body broad side to me. It was a trophy for sure. Big shoulders, massive kype, full spawn coloration.... exactly what you go to the Dream Stream for in the fall.

I started taking pictures when the fish neared the surface and managed to catch a glimpse of him in the picture on the  right. Not sure what part of this fish I'm looking at but the pic doesn't do the fish justice. That is other than the color you can see... I felt really good about where the fish was and how he was behaiving. It was still pretty early and the water was cool. He wasn't lethargic by any means but he wasn't freaking out either.

Then things took a turn for the worse..... Mr. Kype put his head down and took a surge downstream.... directly into a stump covered with vegetation. It only took a second or two for him to break the tippet once he was hung up. Gone.... I saw Ben drop his rod in despair. This time he wouldn't be coming back. He disappeared into the weeds and that was that. Anyone who has lost a good fish knows this feeling and it isn't a good one. But it's better to have hooked and lost than to never have hooked at all and I think Ben learned a few things about fighting big fish. And the day was young.

Ben was laying in the fetal position on the side of the bank in shock, mumbling incoherently so I decided to take a few casts through the run. What a run it was. Nice slow bend fed by a rolling riffle. There was a nice drop off at the head of the bend and half a dozen medium sized boulders placed in the hole. It was the perfect holding area.

It didn't take long to get a hit and I was hooked up. I told Geno that I didn't think it was that big and

he told me that sometimes they will surprise you. Well..... Geno knows what he's talking about. After fighting the fish for a minute or so we got a good view of him and it was a nice 20" plus male cutbow! I did feel a little bad for catching a nice fish while my buddy was sobbing uncontrollably on the bank but not bad enough to not land this beauty... Sorry Ben. I love you Man!

The day was still young though and Ben recovered nicely. We went on to catch some very nice fish. Ben had another bout with another slightly smaller brown but that was not to be either. He did wind up catching a really nice brown towards the end of the trip which helped ease the pain a little.

We had an absolute blast with Geno and I'd recommend him to anyone. He had us on fish all day. I had totally lost track of time but Geno wound up fishing with us for like 9 hours! That is a hard working guide! He taught us some really good techniques and we had a lot of laughs. Can't wait to do it again guys!

South Slope!

SOUTH SLOPE REC from Jamie Roth on Vimeo.

I think we stumbled on the answer of how to establish a silly good fishing pond full of beautiful aggressive fish..... All you have to do is close the place for 101 years!

The South Slope was deeded to Colorado Springs Utilities in 1913 and has been closed to the public ever since. Ben and I heard about the reopening this month and Ben was lucky enough to get a pass! This pass, to me, was just about on par with Pearljam tickets! We knew the fishing would be good but we had no idea just how good it would be.

From Colorado Springs Utilities: "The South Slope watershed lands consist of approximately 9,000 acres located on the south side of Pikes Peak. Elevations range from approximately 10,000 feet to more than 12,000 feet. Although the site is located within 10 miles of the western end of Colorado Springs on a direct line, the watershed lands are situated in a remote setting and requires approximately a 2 hour drive that includes narrow sections and rough, unpaved surfaces.

The South Slope watershed is a diverse and biologically rich landscape. Sub alpine and Engelmann spruce forests rise above fens and wetlands. It is home to bighorn sheep, cutthroat trout and an array of migratory birds. Recreational opportunities are designed to be as low impact as possible to protect sensitive areas. Future allowable activities will include hiking, biking, equestrian and fishing in McReynolds and Mason Reservoirs only."

The future is now!

I had seen Dave Herber posting some great pics from the first two weekends so I hit him up for some advice before we went and as always he did not disappoint. Basically the message is, fish Mason Res (about a mile hike from the parking lot) and use big dries and/or streamers. Sounds good!

It was good before we even started fishing. We had a nice layer of fresh snow to stomp through on the way to the lake. It was a nice surprise. We had a beautiful morning and started hiking just as the sun hit the snow. Really pretty hike to the lake.

We took Dave's advice and started out with streamers but we never got to the dry flies. Why!? you ask... Because we didn't stop catching fish long enough to really even consider doing anything else!

A conservative estimate we came up with is 150 fish between Mike, Ben, and me. It was probably closer to 200 and we probably averaged a fish every 2 to 3 casts. It was really unbelievable. By far the best day of streamer fishing I've ever had.

The cutthroat weren't too picky about pattern or size but size 8-10 seemed to be the best bet. Black, olive, and rust slump busters and wooly buggers all took fish but the best pattern of the day for me was a size 10 rust slump buster. I put this on about an hour and a half after we started fishing after Ben said that rust was doing well and didn't take it off till we were getting ready to leave. If I had one fly to take up there it would be that. Make sure to pinch your barbs down and stay away from big hook gaps. These fish aren't too big and a standard barbless streamer hook allowed us to get a quick release. These fish are all in really good shape and using barbless will help keep them that way.

Retrieve didn't really seem to matter too much either but quick long strips followed by a good 3 second pause seemed to work best. Some fish would follow the streamer all the way to your feet. In that case all you had to do was stop the streamer and hold it in the water and most of the time they'd eat it! Sooooo much fun!


It was interesting to see so many color and pattern variations in the cutthroat we caught. Some had more of a gray/silver base color and some had more of a tan/yellow base color. Some had lots of big spots and some had just a few small spots. Some had red blushing on their sides and bottoms and some didn't. It really kept things interesting. A few were just unbelievably beautiful.

Size ranged from 10" to 16" for the most part with a few that pushed 17-18". Takes ranged from a subtle "tic" to a pull the rod from your hands MOW. Mike even had some top water takes with an unweighted muddler which was really cool to see (check vid).

We were speechless at the end of the day. It was silly good. We even had triples several times during the day. Everyone there seemed to do well. I think I stopped fishing long enough once or twice to take a good look around and I don't think there was a time where someone wasn't landing a fish. Everyone we spoke with on the way out had the same sort of experience we did.

Unfortunately all passes for 2014 have been sold out. BUT..... the South Slope is set to open again this coming spring. Hopefully they will keep the number of passes per day to 16 and only allow fishing on the weekends. I am happy to wait my turn if it means keeping this place as pristine as it is now and getting part 1 of Dave's advice taken care of!

Pike on the Fly!

Going to start this one out earlier this summer..... Ben said he had a little surprise for me and that he was on the way over to the casa. Had no clue what he had planned but was totally blown away when he showed up in my driveway with a Pontoon boat!!! Wha!!! Ben found a killer deal online and was tired of me talking about getting a Pontoon so he decided to do something about it. Really one of the coolest things someone has ever done for me. Ben is a good fishing buddy
and friend and I'm happy to have him in my life.

We've had some fun on the Pontoons this summer. So much so that I haven't really felt like spending more time than I had to on the computer so I skipped a bunch of trips on the blog here. It was a fun summer all in all and we had some good times for sure.

Back to the Pike - We had heard that the pike bite was heating up at Spinney. I've always wanted to target pike at Spinney and now that Ben and I were armed with the pontoons we had no excuse not to get after it!


The night before I started thinking about Pike flies. I had a few articulated flies I've used for trout but I wanted something truly nasty. I decided to take stock of the fly tying materials and I had ample chartreuse marabou and rabbit strips so chartreuse it was! And what the hell, why stop at two segments for an articulated fly. Why not four? Maybe I'll get lucky and get a good corner mouth hook on the last trailer and my line wouldn't get cut up in the mangle. Good friend told us that steel leaders would cut your takes in half so we went with 20lb flouro. Fly turned out plenty nasty and wasn't too tough to cast. It was easiest to just toss it 20 feet or so and then let line out while trolling.

It took an hour or so to figure out what sort of action would trigger a take. I got my first take by VERY slowly kicking to troll the fly. I started pulling about two feet of line in and letting it go quickly in order to create a diving action during the troll. I had only done this for about 5 minutes when I got my first grab. I wasn't too confident at all about what I was doing so I wasn't really expecting a hit but it came and I froze! Totally different type of fishing and I am definitely a newb.

I missed the hit but I knew I was doing at least something right so I stuck with it. Ben was getting some action by fishing a similar action only he was lifting the fly with the rod. I don't think it really matters but that day they did seem to key in on a sinking fly after a quick dart.I do think the fly shouldn't be too heavy. It should sink but it should sink as a fly and the head shouldn't dive down. This creates a very smooth look in the water and to me it looks like a ton of easy calories.

After another half hour or so I thought I felt a small bump and started tightening up the line and BAM!! These takes do not feel like a snag. I thought it was a pike due to the take but I wasn't sure for the first 30 seconds or so until he took a run right at me and almost went under the pontoon. Pike for sure! Awesome! I can't believe this amalgamation of marabou, rabbit fur, cactus chenille, and rubber legs actually worked! What an awesome feeling when a plan comes together.

Not the biggest pike in the pond but I sure was proud of it. Really a fun fish to catch. I'll be back out before the end of October for sure. I think the same pattern in more natural colors will do well.

Wildcat Canyon Zen Fish

Mike shooting some line

It's been almost a year since I've been back to Wildcat Canyon. It's such a beautiful canyon and from what I can tell it does not receive a lot of fishing pressure. It's a bit of a hike (3 miles) to get back to public water but it's an easy hike (easier on the way in) and it's a very peaceful walk in early in the morning.

Larger bow

The last time I fished this water I packed in my gear but this trip I just wore my hip pack and an old pair of running shoes. You don't need a ton of gear to fish this water. I brought a 4 weight but a 3 weight worked well for Mike and we all actually caught fish on Ben's Tenkara rod which was a fun experience.

A #18 flashback Hares Ear worked great all day. San Juans were the preferred attractor fly. The best water is from where the trail dumps you out on the river downstream about a mile. After that it gets pretty rough. There are plenty of runs in this section though and each run seemed to be good for at least a bite. Most fish that we caught were 8-12" but I did land one rainbow that was 15-16". I'm sure there are even bigger fish in this stretch.

Had a cool zen moment fishing the Tenkara rod with Ben. I'm not sure where we got the term but Ben and I have talked about "zen sets" where you just know you have a bite and set the hook. Some runs are just so good and some drifts feel so right that it has to equal a fish. I was watching Ben cast the Tenkara rig and in the middle of a perfect drift in a perfect run I said, "Man I just got that zen feeling. I can't believe that wasn't a fish". Ben went to pick up to cast again and..... fish on.... We both looked at each other and laughed. So when in doubt, zen set! Doesn't cost you anything and it could score you a fish.

Zen Fish

Speaking of Tenkara.... I haven't really paid it much attention till this trip. Cool concept but I like my gear so I haven't put it down long enough to give Ben's Tenkara rod a shot. This weekend I took the time to give it a shot and it was really a lot of fun.You'd be surprised what you can reach with a 12 foot rod. We were actually fishing a two nymph rig (sacrilege!) on it and we were getting silky smooth runs with 0 fly line in the water.

Everything was very familiar until the indicator went under. What the hell do I do now!? It was a fleeting feeling that I needed to do something more. Then I realized the beauty of Tenkara. You don't do anything but keep even pressure on. Nice! No fly line to get on the spool or drag to worry about. Just keep even pressure. Fun way to catch a fish. Now it's just a matter of how big of a fish we can land on the ol' bamboo telescope rod thing. :)

Colorado Grayling

Robert from Replicas Inc. had a sweet replica of a grayling in his shop when I picked up my Frying Pan bow replica a while back. Ben and I got to talking to him and he mentioned that there was a good amount of grayling in Joe Wright Reservoir. What?? I had no idea we had grayling in Colorado.

I've always been interested in them and can remember reading articles about grayling fishing in Alaska when I was a kid. Ben was actually stationed up in Alaska for a while and had caught quite a few of them. It sounded like a blast. Ben remembered them being really aggressive little fish that gave you a good run or two and weren't too picky about fly selection. We were both on board to hit the reservoir. I sent an email to myself so I wouldn't forget the name of the reservoir and we left it at that for quite some time.

Ben actually brought it up one weeknight when we were trying to figure out where to go the following weekend. Sweet! I had pretty much forgot about it. Pays to have good fishing buddies. We decided to leave fairly early so we could get up there for some mid morning fishing.

It is a bit of a haul from Colorado Springs and you have to drive past a TON of good looking water on the Cache La Poudre River to get up there but its worth the trip. The mission was for at least one of us to catch a grayling. We had no idea how many grayling were in the reservoir, if we could find them to put flies in front of them, or what flies to even start out with.

My first grayling

Lucky for us the grayling lived up to their reputation. It took about a minute and a half to get a hit on a #18 red Copper John and about 5 more seconds to realize it was a grayling. Mission accomplished! Everything else was icing on the cake.

Grayling are in fact pretty aggressive little fish. Most takes were VERY obvious. We caught grayling on nymphs and dries. It really didn't matter what you used but Copper Johns, Hares Ears, San Juans worked well below the surface and Caddis and Adams worked well on top. Ben even caught a few on his Tenkara rod on Tenkara flies.

The action did taper off the closer we got to noon. The next time we hit this reservoir we want to start fishing right at daylight. I'm guessing you would get at least 4 hours of crazy good dry fly fishing in.

We did hit the Cache La Poudre on the way out but we didn't go downstream far enough. We hit some pretty rough water and were limited to a few good runs. We did manage to pull a few nice browns though.

Next trip up this way is going to be an orvernighter. We are going to camp along the river, fish the reservoir first the in the morning, and then hit the river around the hatchery in the afternoon. Going to be sweet. This state has no shortage of cool places to go fishing. Very cool to add a new species to the list. Still have pike and large mouth bass to knock out! Not to mention some monster carp.

Hayden Ranch on the Arkansas

Lucas with his first fish on a fly!

My buddy Lucas Wilson was in town for a few days for a Soundgarden concert at Red Rocks and I wanted to get a fly fishing trip in while he was here. I had recently been over Tennessee Pass and was impressed with the looks of the Arkansas headwaters. Usually I peel off of 24 before I get up that far on the river. To me it looked like a lot of water and not a lot of people.  I didn't want Lucas to have to use 6x tippet and microscopic flies, and the normal crew was in the mood for new water so we decided to give it a shot.

Lucas, Mike, Ben and I dropped by ArkAnglers in Buena Vista on the way up to
grab some advice and a few flies. We didn't really know where we wanted to start fishing and we were told that the crowd thinned out a bit up in the Hayden Ranch area. We decided to drive out of town for a while and hit whatever looked good on our way up to Hayden Ranch. We saw plenty of good water but it seemed that the further we drove, the busier it got. When we got to the overpass the parking lot was packed! We were pretty bummed out but decided to give it a shot anyway.

Mike with a nice brown

We jumped out and rigged up and headed for the water. As soon as we got over the first hill we found the crowd and they weren't fishing the Ark! There was a pond just over the hill from the parking lot and it was completely surrounded by bubbas. Sweet! Looked like we were going to have some room on the river.

The river looked great. Reminded me a bit of the Tomahawk area of the South Platte. It was COLD too! Lucas made us all aware of just how cold it was. I probably should have let him jump in a pair of waders since he isn't used to cold water but he's a former Marine and I figured he'd get over it.

The fishing got better the further upstream we moved. Not much of a hatch when we first started fishing so I was fishing a two nymph rig. Chartreuse Copper Johns #16 worked best early. Caddis started hatching about an hour after we got there and we switched to a two dry rig consisting of a Yellow Sally and Caddis.  The Caddis worked pretty consistantly but the Yellow Sally brought up the bigger of the fish we caught that day. Didn't just bring them up either, it made them go crazy on the take. REALLY aggressive/splashy takes! Good times :-)

We all caught fish and had a great time. Next time we head up this way we are going to walk in a little further before fishing. I would have liked to have kept fishing upstream another mile or so but the weather didn't allow that. Definitely some water I plan on fishing again.

Alicia's First Trout on a Dry Fly!

Alicia's first on a dry fly!

19 incher out of Elk!

20 incher out of Spring!

Alicia spent the morning schooling Marty, Ben, and me at Rainbow Falls and she caught her first trout on a dry fly! Not just any trout either but this sweet bow! She really was flawless in her execution. I think it took her by surprise a little (as it does all of us the first time we see a fish eat a dry fly) and she very calmly lifted the rod and held the perfect pressure as the fish made its first few runs. This was only after Alicia pulled in two other slabs up top!

We spent the morning fishing Spring, Eagle,Palmer, and Elk Lake. Alicia hammered a STRONG 20 incher in Spring Lake on a #18 bead head, flashback Hares Ear. This thing peeled some line. Alicia is getting very good at fighting fish! So proud of her.

Alicia has actually dramatically improved in a lot of areas over the last year or so. Casting, spotting fish, knot tying, fighting fish, netting..... Very cool to see Alicia enjoying this sport. She out fished all of us today and I couldn't be happier.

Marty also did very well today. He missed a brute on Spring Lake early in the morning but made up for it at the end of the morning on dries with some nice fish during the Caddis hatch.

It is bug season at Rainbow Falls as Richard pointed out in the last Tightline. Ditch the streamer rod, San Juans, and eggs and hit the midge hatch early with very small Griffiths Gnats. Trail one behind an Elk Hair Caddis so you don't go cross-eyed trying to see it on the water! Other good combos today were #18 Chocolate Shot Glass and #18 bead head flash

Marty with a nice one that crushed a dry!

back Hares Ear 12" behind an Elk Hair. Don't be afraid to move your flies. A slow retrieve with quick pauses was working well as Ben pointed out.

Great day at one of my favorite places soaking up some sun and catching some sweet fish. Always fun spending time with this crew. Even got to catch up with Richard who was, as usual, out and about working hard on the property. He has some great plans in the works for this coming off season and next season is only going to be better!

Marty again on a dry!